In a shocking twist, Billy has turned on Dolly and begun to reassert Thel's illusion of control. It will be interesting to see how Dolly reacts. It's possible she'll just give the signal and this mall Santa will suffocate to death Billy with his beard.

Actually, I doubt Les is dead. There's been too much foreshadowing, and Batiuk probably isn't going to play it straight. I now expect a shocking twist in which we discover that Les has merely been crippled for life. The years of misery Batiuk could wring from such an injury far outweigh the few weeks of misery (more intense though it may be) that a single death brings about.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Off the Mark is a really solid single-panel gag cartoon that I rarely talk about but usually enjoy. Today's installment uses both Twitter and a pun in service of a joke, which normally wouldn't be a good sign, but Mark Parisi manages to pull it off.

The cartoon works because neither Twitter nor the pun are the joke in and of themselves. Rather, they sort of each work as a set-up and a punchline at the same time; the tweets set up the pun, but the pun does just as good a job setting up the tweets. And what's really funny about the cartoon is the situation.

Cherry's completely unhinged reaction to a common sitcom misunderstanding might seem a bit overdone. But you have to remember that she's a woman, and as such her female parts prevent her from having any control over her emotions.

This is also why she's always trying to kiss Mark at inappropriate times. Like when they're standing under mistletoe, for example.

Monday, December 13, 2010

If the comic strip weren't called Mark Trail, Mark wouldn't stand a chance against such a remorseless, self-centered enemy. As it is, I'm left hoping for some sort of spin-off. The best case scenario, of course, would be Mark getting himself Barney Googled, but that's just not going to happen, unfortunately.

If there's a question mark next to someone's name, you haven't actually finished your Christmas list. So this set-up really doesn't make any sense. What's weirder is that it's entirely superfluous. It's not as the comic needed begin with, "Look! I finished my Christmas list!" It could just as easily have begun with, "I'm not sure what to get you." And yet.